Another Post-Resurrection Meal And Its Implications For The Early Understanding Of The Eucharist

10.1163/ej.9789004173552.i-622.136

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Chapter Summary

In the final years of the fourth century, Jerome wrote a short work in praise of the literary prowess of Christians to which he attached the title De viris illustribus. What attracts less attention is the fact that this work is sometimes our oldest extant witness to traditions about Jesus that we tend to lump together under the pejorative label apocrypha. It is one such passage from the De uiris illustribus upon which this chapter is focused. Jerome offers a potted biography and account of the writings of 135 men from the earliest times until Jerome himself. All the stories of the post-resurrection eatings could be seen as Eucharistic, not because we can identify in them aspects of what later is a well-defined ritual, but because every meal among Christians can be an encounter with the risen Jesus.